About

Celebrating our 140th season!

Mission

To inspire individuals and enrich communities by connecting audiences and artists in uncommon and engaging experiences.

About UMS

UMS was selected as one of the 2014 recipients of the National Medal of Arts, the nation’s highest public artistic honor, awarded annually by the president of the United States at the White House to those who have “demonstrated a lifetime of creative excellence,” according to the National Endowment for the Arts, which oversees the selection process.

Housed on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, UMS is one of the oldest performing arts presenters in the country, committed to connecting audiences with performing artists from around the world in uncommon and engaging experiences.

With a program steeped in music, dance, and theater, UMS contributes to a vibrant cultural community by presenting approximately 60-75 performances and over 100 free educational activities each season. UMS also commissions new work, sponsors artist residencies, and organizes collaborative projects with local, national, and international partners.

President Matthew VanBesien

Matthew VanBesien became president of UMS in July 2017. VanBesien took the reins from Ken Fischer, who retired at the end of June 2017 after 30 years in the job. VanBesien is only the seventh president in UMS history after Henry Simmons Frieze (1879-81, 1883-89), Alexander Winchell (1881-83, 1889-91), Francis Kelsey (1891-1927), Charles Sink (1927-68), Gail Rector (1968-86), and Ken Fischer (1987-2017).

A former French horn player, Matthew VanBesien spent eight years performing with the Louisiana Philharmonic before joining the League of American Orchestras’ management fellowship program. Upon completion of that program, he worked with the Houston Symphony for seven years, rising to executive director and CEO for the final four years of his tenure. He spent two years as managing director of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in Australia before returning to the United States to become executive director of the New York Philharmonic in 2012. He was named president of the New York Philharmonic in 2014.

During his tenure at the New York Philharmonic, Matthew VanBesien has helped develop and execute innovative programs along with music director Alan Gilbert, such as the NY PHIL BIENNIAL in 2014 and 2016, the Art of the Score film and music series, and exciting productions like Jeanne d’Arc au bucher with Marion Cotillard and Sweeney Todd with Emma Thompson. He led the creation of the New York Philharmonic’s Global Academy initiative, which offers educational partnerships with cultural institutions in Shanghai, Santa Barbara, Houston, and Interlochen to train talented pre-professional musicians, often alongside performance residencies. He led a successful music director search, with Jaap van Zweden appointed to the role beginning in 2018, the formation of the Philharmonic’s International Advisory Board and President’s Council, and the unique and successful multi-year residency and educational partnership in Shanghai, China. He serves on the Board of Directors of the League of American Orchestras, a membership organization comprised of hundreds of orchestras from across North America, and the Executive Committee for the Avery Fisher Career Grants, which provides professional assistance and recognition to talented instrumentalists.

A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Matthew VanBesien earned a bachelor of music degree in French horn performance from Indiana University. In May 2014 Mr. VanBesien received an Honorary Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Manhattan School of Music. He is married to Rosanne Jowitt, an accomplished geoscientist in the oil and gas business.

Performances

The center of all that is UMS. We believe in the power of world class performing arts to inspire, transform, and connect individuals with transcendent experiences. From the illustrious to the unknown, from the traditional to the experimental, UMS opens the doors to a fascinating journey, full of new discoveries.

Connection

The performing arts are not a one way experience, but a conversation in which you participate. Our programs feature audience participation events, online dialogue after performances, community events, and so much more. We hope UMS lives beyond the walls of our venues and becomes part of our thinking, our memories, and our lives.

Learning

Learning is core to UMS’s mission, and it is our joy to provide creative learning experiences for our entire community. Every season, we offer a spectrum of Education and Community Engagement activities focusing on K-12 students, teachers, teens, university students, families, adults, and cultural and ethnic communities. We exist to create a spark in each person, young and old alike, exposing them to things they haven’t before seen, and leaving them with an ongoing and lifelong passion for creativity and the performing arts.

President Emeritus Ken Fischer

Ken Fischer served as UMS president from 1987 to 2017. Over three decades, he oversaw the organization’s artistic growth and diversification into ongoing commitments to art forms outside of classical music; expansion into K-12, university, and community education programs; and initiatives to put UMS on a secure financial footing. Under Fischer’s visionary leadership, UMS has greatly expanded and diversified its programming and its audiences, deepening its engagement with the University (including relationships with 70 academic units and more than 200 faculty) and southeast Michigan communities; created exemplary partnerships with leading artistic collaborators across the world; taken an active role in commissioning new works; and received significant grants awarded by prominent foundations that support the arts.

Under Fischer’s tenure, UMS was named a 2014 National Medal of Arts recipient, the first university presenter to receive this highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the United States government.

Gail Rector from 1957-1987

Gail Rector became the Executive Director of UMS in 1957. A graduate of the University of Michigan, he was the assistant to president Charles Sink from 1945 until 1954, when when heleft Ann Arbor for Boston, where he servedas Assistant Manager of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Executive Secretary of the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood for three years. He returned to UMS in 1957, and in 1968, when President Sink resigned from UMS to accept emeritus status, Rector succeeded him.

Gail served UMS with great distinction for nearly four decades. During this time he won the admiration and respect not only of the people of Ann Arbor, but of the international community of performing artists, managers and presenters. Hailed as a ‘giant’ in the industry, Rector received the top awards the field has to offer its most outstanding leaders

Charlie Sink from 1904-1968

Charles A. Sink was at the helm of UMS for over half of the 20th century. He came to U-M from Churchville, MA, graduating in 1904, and immediately began serving as Secretary, and then Business Manager, at the U-M School of Music. In 1927, he was named president of UMS, succeeding Francis Kelsey. Among his professional colleagues, Dr. Sink was known as the Dean of Concert Managers. He was one of the founders of the National Association of Concert Managers in the 1940s, and developed the UMS Choral Union Series and May Festivals as models of artistic achievement and quality. Sink had a storied history of working with prominent artists, including, among many other highlights, fostering the profession of conductor Thor Johnson, who came to U-M as a graduate student in 1934.

In 1940, UMS transferred the School of Music to the U-M in order to focus exclusive on presenting an annual series of concerts and the May Festival. Under Sink’s guidance, this separation also marked UMS’s new independence but continued close affiliation to the University. Sink ended his full-time service to UMS in 1957, when he transferred administrative affairs to newly-appointed Executive Director Gail Rector.